Sass Jordan made honorary colonel along with host of celebrities welcomed into the ranks of the Canadian Forces

Sass Jordan made honorary colonel of the Canadian Forces

A 30-year music industry veteran, Sass Jordan is known as a hard-rocking singer-songwriter and former Canadian Idol judge. On Friday, she will assume a more buttoned-down persona, invested at a Royal Canadian Air Force ceremony as honorary colonel of 417 Combat Support Squadron at 4 Wing Cold Lake in Alberta. But, as Christopher Guly reports, she is not the first celebrity the Canadian Forces has brought into its ranks.

A public face
Typically, honorary lieutenant colonels or colonels for the Army, RCAF honorary colonels, and honorary captains for the Navy, were ceremonial titles primarily handed out to retired Canadian military officers to foster “esprit de corps” within the unit, according to Royal Canadian Navy Captain Michel Charron, director of senior appointments for the Forces. But over the past decade, the selection criteria for the honorary appointments’ “gene pool” was expanded to include non-retired military folks from the worlds of academia, business, politics (excluding Members of Parliament), and arts and entertainment. “One of our objectives is to increase the connection to the communities in which the units are located,” explained Capt. Charron. “By their presence and name, these distinguished Canadians provide a public profile — and a public face — for the unit.” An honorary officer nomination begins at the unit or squadron level, and must be approved by regional command and national headquarters. The recommendation is sent to the Defence Minister, who officially makes the appointment. “The whole idea we have is that if we can make people a little more aware of what the Air Force is involved in, maybe they’ll take more interest overall in our operations,” said retired Col. Dave Peart, who spent 39 years with the RCAF and now manages the program.

Family history
Loreena McKennitt’s maternal grandfather served in the First World War, but she admits to being in a “considerable state of ignorance” as to what the Canadian Forces did. That changed when personal tragedy struck. In 1998, her fiancé, Ronald Rees, his brother, Richard, and the couple’s close friend, Gregory Cook, drowned in a boating accident on Georgian Bay in Ontario. The RCAF 424 squadron from Trenton, Ont., was involved in the search-and-rescue operation, and its commanding officer later asked Ms. McKennitt whether she would be interested in becoming honorary colonel of 435 Transport and Rescue Squadron at 17 Wing in Winnipeg, which had a vacancy. Ms. McKennitt, who lives in Stratford, Ont., but was born in Morden, Man., agreed, and has handled the role in a very hands-on way since her 2006 appointment. Ms. McKennitt has participated in re-supply missions to northern communities — often at the back of a Hercules aircraft — search-and-rescue procedures, air-to-air refuelling during U.S. and Canadian military training exercises at Cold Lake, a Snowbird training flight in Moose Jaw, Sask., and “heart-wrenching and sobering” repatriation ceremonies in Trenton. She has also laid a wreath at 435’s annual Remembrance Day ceremony, funded a documentary on Canadian veterans of the little-known Burma Campaign during the Second World War, and co-ordinated a performance of Billy Bishop Goes to War for the squadron’s just over 200 members. “I have to make sure that I rise to the privilege of that title,” she says.

Steep learning curveAfter Sass Jordan performed at a Christmas show at the Forces’ station in Alert, Nunavut, in December 2010, she was asked whether she would consider becoming an honorary colonel of 14 Wing Combat Support. “I said sure — what is an honorary colonel?” Ms. Jordan recalled. “I don’t have much of a clue as to what the military does,” confessed the Juno and Billboard Music award-winning singer, quickly adding that she knows “a helluva lot more” than she did before after hanging out with squadron members in February, and learned about their role in providing search-and-rescue helicopter support to wing operations. “Just being in the presence of these people who do this incredible work in the most intense circumstances was eye-opening to me, as it would be for most Canadians,” said Ms. Jordan, who will commute, when necessary, from Toronto to Cold Lake. “Getting to know them — their stories, their wonderful dark sense of humour which they have to deal with life-and-death situations and a lot of horrifying stuff — they are truly amazing human beings.” Ms. McKennitt has become a valued advocate, citing the Forces’ far-reaching mandate, which ranges from humanitarian aid and domestic disaster relief, to peacekeeping and peacemaking — all at considerable personal sacrifice to its members and their families. “When you see what they’re doing, how they’re doing it and what they’re doing it with, and what they’re risking and compromising, I think, holy cow, this is the least I can do in providing whatever assistance they need of me.”

Celebrity guest stars
Appointed for a renewable three-year term, honorary officers don’t get paid, but their expenses — such as travel to a military base — are covered by the Forces. They’re expected to help their unit organize and participate in parades, change-of-command ceremonies, mess dinners and charitable activities, such as through the CF’s Military Family Resource Centres’ programs. In June, marketing entrepreneur Arlene Dickinson, of CBC Television’s Dragons’ Den fame, became an honorary captain for the Royal Canadian Navy. A month earlier, Man in Motion Rick Hansen was made an honorary colonel of the Forces’ Joint Personnel Support Unit, which provides services to serving and retired ill and injured military personnel. Comedian Rick Mercer, rock star Tom Cochrane, country music singer George Canyon, Conservative Senator Pamela Wallin, and CBC Hockey Night in Canada sportscaster Ron MacLean have also served as honorary colonels with the RCAF.